"The Voice" -use with caution

I was eager to receive "The Voice" translation of the New Testament. With a promise of insight, clarity, and enjoyment...who wouldn't look forward to understanding the Bible in a more relevant way. I did enjoy areas of the book, however, I would advise that most readers use this translation with extreme caution. As it says in the "fine print"...this is a personal devotional. So there's a little bit of a confusing message on the cover of this book. After careful review...I would classify it as "devotional," rather than "translation."

I found the book to be a little confusing at times. It was difficult to decifer where the true text of the Bible began and where the liberal interpretations of the Word began. Set up in a "screen play" style, the idea is to get you to feel closer to the "action" in the Bible. I think it did that...it's just that I think a lot of the "interpretations" of what Biblical characters were "thinking" can only be written off as personal opinion and interpretation. For example in John 21, "The Voice" states:

"After Jesus' death, we didn't know what to do with ourselves. What we all knew was fishing. So- we went fishing. Jesus never taught us how to turn two fish into a mound of food that could feed thousands, and we had no money. So, if we wanted to eat, then we had to go catch some fish. Grief has a way of stripping you down to basic survival skills. We were trying to wrap our brains around what happened and why. We couldn't even catch our own bait!"

With that...I'll let you decide if you will buy this book or not. I found many of the "interpretations" to be somewhat dangerous at times. The Word of God is filled with the Spirit...who enables God to speak to each person who reads it...I'm not sure that we should feel comfortable "adding to" or "taking away" from what God has inspired the specific authors of the Bible to write. From my study of over eight translations...the Word of God is powerful enough in its original translation. The NIV and NLT is as far as we need to go with interpretation. That's my opinion.